Vermonters used nearly three times as much energy in 2009 as they did in 1960, according to research from the Department of Public Service. In 1960, Vermont households and businesses consumed about 62 billion BTUs, or British Thermal Units, in electricity, heating fuel and transportation fuel. Nearly four decades later, Vermonters use 170 billion BTUs a year on average – despite the state’s efficiency efforts and worries about the impact of the state’s fossil fuel emissions to the greenhouse gases warming the Earth.
The biggest drivers of energy consumption over the last 40 years are transportation (we drive twice as much) and electricity (we use double the amount of power).
Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, an early proponent of state-led initiatives to curb greenhouse gases, has made energy efficiency and renewables the cornerstones of his energy policy. In January, Shumlin announced that he would ask the Department of Public Service to develop a comprehensive energy plan that would incorporate these objectives by Oct. 15.
Shumlin has said the state can’t move ahead with new projects – such as the proposed biomass electricity plants in Fair Haven and Pownal – until it has a blueprint for energy in place. (He has, however, openly endorsed other controversial projects, such as a proposed natural gas pipeline in Addison County and the Kingdom County Wind proposal in Lowell.)
The planning process is now under way – though it began before Shumlin took office. The department produced a draft plan midway through Gov. James Douglas’ eight-year tenure in office that was never finalized. The Douglas administration adopted it in 2008 over the objections of the Legislature. (The last time a comprehensive plan was formally approved was in 1998.)
Under the proposal, the state would reduce heating fuel consumption 6 percent by 2017, and lower transportation carbon “intensity” 10 percent by 2020.
Liz Miller, the new commissioner of the department, dusted off the 2008 draft plan last month, and she has been shopping it around at public hearings and taking testimony from Vermonters over the last few weeks.
Miller and director of planning, Dave Lamont, gave a presentation at one such gathering last Wednesday, held by the Senate Natural Resources Committee. About 100 Vermonters packed Room 11, the largest hearing room in the Statehouse – though many of the attendees weren’t there to hear about the plan – they came to protest the Kingdom Community Wind project in Lowell.
In nearly two hours of citizen testimony, the preponderance of witnesses explicitly or obliquely criticized commercial wind projects on Vermont ridgelines in general or the Lowell project in particular. Some of the comments merely named hydro and solar as desirable renewables, while omitting wind, while others called for small-scale wind projects rather than ridgetop wind farms.
Miller said the plan would not address projects already in the political process, such as the Kingdom Community Wind project in Lowell or whether to close Vermont Yankee in 2012.
Miller and Lamont explained that the more than 200-page plan, which addresses transportation, energy efficiency, land use, biomass and natural gas, would be revised to include an update of the state electricity plan.
No one disputed the importance of reducing Vermont’s emissions of greenhouse gases and dependence on non-renewable energy sources. Patrick Flood, deputy secretary of the Agency of Human Services and a resident of Woodbury, highlighted the “urgency” of using less energy and developing renewable energy sources.
“Climate change is not only real, it’s coming at us faster than most people realize,” Flood said. “The world we’re leaving to our children is going to be a hostile world. We’re looking at a world that we cannot predict today. What do we think the world will be like when every hurricane is a Katrina? There needs to be an imperative to move quickly, and I haven’t heard that yet.”
At the Agency of Human Services, Flood said he has worked on important issues, such as health care, child abuse, hunger, poverty, and human rights. All of those social problems pale in comparison, he said, with the potential impact of climate change on Vermonters’ lives. He called for enforceable targets for carbon reduction.
“Every single one of those issues will be worse, will be intractable, if we don’t deal with climate change,” Flood said.
Waitsfield architect Bill Maclay described buildings he has designed in Vermont that had netted zero or nearly zero energy use over the year. Maclay called for energy per square foot efficiency targets for new buildings. He also asked the department to assess the state’s existing renewable resources and to allocate solar, wind, and wood resources in a way that makes sense.
While the Legislature has no formal role in the drafting the energy plan, lawmakers will pay close attention as it develops, according to Sen. Ginny Lyons, chair of Natural Resources and Energy Committee.
Miller said the department will incorporate the Legislature’s goals for the energy sector in the state plan, and she pledged that the new energy blueprint for the state would, like the 1998 plan, set a clear direction for the state.
The 1998 document, “Fueling Vermont’s Future,” was prescriptive. The plan detailed action steps that would put Vermont in the forefront of sound energy use “if bold new policies, researched, modeled, and recommended in this Plan, were implemented. Substantial policy changes are needed now to move Vermont expeditiously toward the state’s energy and environmental goals.”
In contrast, the 2008 draft plan is less explicit. Riley Allen, who was planning director at the Department of Public Service at the time, described the thinking behind the document: “In those areas where we as a Department of Public Service have some control over timelines, we try to provide specificity about the pace. For those areas that are outside our direct sphere of influence, we are identifying the policy and direction, and the timing is really a matter for the General Assembly, for the administration, and other agencies, and the public at large to help direct.”
Miller said a draft of the new plan will be available this summer.
Information on the process and copies of the 2008 draft plan and the 1998 plan are available at
http://publicservice.vermont.gov/pub/state-plans/CEP_2011_Working_Draft_3-14-11.pdf
http://publicservice.vermont.gov/pub/state-plans-compenergy.html
Read about the state’s plans for renewables:
http://publicservice.vermont.gov/energy/CEP_renewables_stakeholder%20meeting_Andy%20Perchlik.pdf
Read about the state’s energy efficiency objectives:
http://publicservice.vermont.gov/energy/CEP%20Stakeholder%20Mtg_Energy%20Efficiency_TJ%20Poor.pdf
Editor’s note: Anne Galloway contributed to this report.
